DISCLAIMER!: I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Thought you'd know by now...

(A/N): I don't really have much to say...

TO THE CHAPTER!

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Chapter 48: Preliminaries

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"NARUTOOOO!" Sasuke yelled as he walked out of the cave. Purple chakra covering him as his curse mark spread across his skin.

"Ah, shit...he gave in."

. . . .

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled as Sasuke charged past her. He had a smile on his face, but his eyes just screamed crazy. He blurred out of sight and appeared behind Naruto.

Naruto had barely enough time to bring his guard up before heavy kick sent him flying away from the others.

Team 10 went wide eyed and backed off on instinct. Lee took the initiative however and engaged the manic Sasuke. "Konoha Senpu!" he yelled as he sent a series of spinning kicks at the raven haired boy.

Sasuke smirked and dodged them all. Once Lee's combo ended Sasuke got within his guard and delivered a devastating uppercut to the Taijutsu specialist. Lee was sent careening into the air, but was able to shakily land on his feet. Lee got into the Strong Fist stance and gave a taunting wave to Sasuke. Sasuke snarled at the green clad boy and tried to charge him again.

But as soon as he moved, several arms came out of the ground and grabbed his legs. Sasuke fell to the ground as three Naruto clones pinned him down. He snarled again and thrashed around, trying to get them off. But his efforts were quickly stopped when the real Naruto came out of the ground in front of Sasuke's face. He placed a tag on his forehead and made a single hand sing. "Kai!" Naruto said. The seal on the tag glowed for a moment before Sasuke calmed down.

When the seal stopped glowing Sasuke was unconscious again. Naruto let out a loud sigh.

Team 10 came out from their hiding place again and Ino pointed at Naruto. "What in the hell did you do to him!" she shouted with an accusing tone. Her teammates shook their heads at Ino and Shikamaru sighed an almost inaudible 'troublesome'. Naruto dispelled his cone and looked at Ino. "Don't worry, it's just a chakra suppressing seal. It will wear off in about an hour." he said as he turned to Sakura. "We need to move before ay other teams get here!" he shouted to break her from her surprised shock.

She slowly nodded and walked to Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto made a clone to carry Sasuke and they began to leave. Naruto turned and gave a thankful nodded to Lee before they jumped off towards the tower. Ino growled at them as they left. "I can't believe him! Not even a word of thanks for us being here!" she yelled. "I don't care if he's daring Hinata! Next time see that jackass I'm gonna kick his ass!"

Shikamura only shook his head. "Why are things always so troublesome with you Naruto?"

. . . .

As Team 7 made their way to the Tower, Sakura get next to Naruto before giving him a worried look. "W-What happened back there? That wasn't Sasuke-kun. He would never just attack you and Lee like that." she said, trying to keep her voice calm and not let it shake. Naruto glanced at her before giving a tired sigh. "I don't know. My guess is he gave into the Curse Marks power for a moment an it caused him to go on a rampage." he said a he shook his head. He stopped talking for a moment and just kept looking forward.

After a few seconds he started to pick up the pace. "Come on, it's the third day and we need to get to the tower so I, or Kakashi-sensei can work on that damn seal."

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They arrived at the tower about two hours later. Sasuke had woken up. He didn't remember what happened earlier an just thought they were on the move after the attack from Orochimaru. Sakura explained that they were headed for the tower and that Naruto was able to get an Earth scroll.

Sasuke was surprisingly quiet the entire way to the Tower. Once they arrived they opened the scrolls and Iruka popped out of the summoning seal. "Congratulations guys! Good job on passing the second exam." he said with a smile on his face. "You guys can head over to the rest area and get a room for the remainder of the exam." he said and pointed in the direction of the rooms. "Just go up those stares and pick an empty room. Oh, and before I forget, the team from Suna and Team 8 are already here. I'll see ya!" he said as he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto turned to Sasuke with a serious expression.

"Ok, come on Teme, I need to put something over that Curse Mark so it doesn't fuck with your head." he said in a no nonsense tone. Sasuke's hand went straight to were the mark was and slowly nodded.

. . . .

After a few hours Naruto was able to put a Evil Suppression seal over the Curse Mark. Sasuke passed out in the process and Naruto handed him over to Sakura so she could take care of him.

Naruto walked out of his teams room and started heading towards the cafeteria when he was stopped. "Naru-kun!" Hinata called and giving him a running hug from behind. He laughed and turned around to hug her back. "You guys made it! Good job by the way." he said as he backed out of the hug. Kiba walked up with a smirk. "Ya and we beat you here. Must mean we are the better team." he said in a mocking tone. Shino walked up and remained silent.

Naruto smirked at the Inuzuka. "Hm, I bet you are the better team. Any team with the Teme on it surely lacks in the teamwork department." he replied. Kiba snickered at the jab at the 'King of Brooding' and shook his head. They walked down to the cafeteria recounting the happenings in the forest. Naruto didn't tell them about what happened with Orochimaru, but made a mental note to tell Hinata next time they were alone. For now, he would enjoy the two days he had to be with her before the third exam started.

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Those two days passed faster than he wanted. It was the fifth day and all the passing teams were waiting in the arena. All of the rookie teams made it, as well as Lee's team. The only other team that made it through other than the one from Suna was one from Iwa. They were all older Genin and were glaring daggers at Naruto. Naruto just brushed them off as the Hokage walked into the room. He was flanked by Hayate Gekko and his Anbu commander, Uzuki Yugao. Hiruzen explained the real reason the Chunin exams take place. That they are just glorified war games.

Once Hiruzen was done Hayate started to explain the next exam. "*cough* Ok, the third exam is one on one matches. *cough* but there too many here for us to be able to hold the third exam right now *cough cough*. So, we are going to hold a preliminary round to thin the groups out." he explained. He turned to a screen on the wall and continued while pointing to it. "That screen will display two names at random. *cough* Those will be the ones who fight. The rules are, anything goes. Just stop when I say so. You can forfeit if you choose to do so. I will stop the fighting if I deem a winner. But death is always a possibility. *cough cough* now...for the first match."

The screen flipped through names until it stopped on two. "The first match. Uchiha Sasuke vs Tsucuki Hadorokku." Hayate announced. Sasuke smirked and turned to his opponent from Iwa. He was a tall stocky man. He had short cropped hair and a large smirk. "Alright kid, why don't you just drop out now while you have the chance. I'm not into beat poor little kids into the ground." he said in a mocking tone.

Sasuke sneered at the man and readied himself. Sharingan blazing.

Hayate raised his hand and looked between the two fighters. He got a nod from both of them and lowered his hand. "Hajime!"

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Naruto and Sakura were watching from the higher hallway when Kakashi walked up to them. "Yo, how's it been?" he asked as he gave his trade mark eye smile. Naruto gave him a nod and Sakura didn't respond, she just continued to watch Sasuke's fight. Kakashi leaned against the railing next to Naruto. "How is he?" he asked in a hushed tone.

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. "He's...struggling. The snake got the Mark on him and he fell to its influence once already. I put a seal on it...but I don't know if it'll do much if he chooses to use it again." Naruto informed his Sensei. Kakashi nodded solemnly. "Alright, I'll keep an eye on him. How's the fight going?"

"Not to his favor. The guy from Iwa has more experience. And has the advantage of keeping his emotions in check."

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Sasuke was NOT having a good time. He went for another attack but was forced back by a spike of earth. He snarled in frustration. His opponent hadn't moved from his position at all. He just formed a hand signs and placed his hands on the ground. Hadorokku never let his smirk falter. "Come on brat. Can that little Doujutsu of yours not help your through my Doton: Chikyu Yamarashi? (Earth release: Earth Porcupine)" he mocked.

Sasuke hadn't been just randomly attacking. He was judging the range of the mans jutsu. The range just happened to be ten meters. Too much for him to get close. Sasuke snarled and weaved a familiar set of hand signs. "Katon: Gobyaku no Jutsu!" he roared as he released a large fireball towards the Iwa Genin. The ball of flame engulfed the man and Sasuke smirked. He turned his back on the man in the fire and started to walk away.

His confidence faltered though, when the mans voice called out. "That all you got kid?" he asked. Sasuke whipped around to see his opponent behind a thicket of rock needles. "Earth beats fire kiddo. Learn your basics before you get confident." he said and ran through hand signs. With Sasuke's sharingan deactivated he didn't know what was to come.

Until he was hit in the back of the neck and knocked out. A rock clone stood behind the unconscious boy. Hayate raised his hand. "Winner! Tsucuki Hadorokku!"

. . . .

Up in the stands Sakura and Ino where shocked silent. Sasuke lost in a completely one sided fight. Naruto just sighed and Kakashi shook his head. "I really need to work on his attitude. Just like Seinaru said." he mumbled to himself. Before Naruto could say anything, the next match was called.

"Uzumaki Naruto vs Sabaku no Kankuro!"

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(A/N): CUT!

Ok, some answers here. The Sasuke I have written isn't exactly the strongest of people. He's got skill, but he's too arrogant. SOOO I had him lose.

And those Iwa nin I have here are not just background characters. They have a purpose, and it concerns Naruto and something to do with him and Cole during that time skip through the Academy years. :D So look forward for more of these three.

Remember to REVIEW! And as always, I'll see ya next time!